This is why Broken Fable is better than every other Marvel/DC comic or Dragon Ball Z. Because everyone in Marvel is apparently universal+, and Goku can shake the universe by punching a purple stray cat.
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Applying science to this story is not very feasible. How would science be able to explain the very existence of sun wokung. No science could not explain sun wokung, and yet sun wokung could only transform into a nuclear pasta because scientific research found nuclear pasta. See how confusing that is. Sometimes science makes no sense in fantastical setting.
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I have a question which fable would y’all actually chill with and be friends with?
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Sun Wukong 
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Pele seems to be the easiest to befriend. I don’t know why, but I just get good vibes from him. Maybe it’s because I’m Brazilian, and he seems like a friend who would organize a good barbecue, a day at the beach, and some trips.
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Just don’t make him mad we don’t want the block to explode
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I haven’t the foggiest idea who I could be friends with. None of them would like me, I believe anyway.
Going by how many irl, 2?!, yeah, I am pretty sure I’m accurate. They’d work with me at least, and consider me an acquaintance at best.
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Even Fantasy has rules.
Lord of the Rings has magic but it’s constrained, calling water, shining a light, invisible,…. It will be worse of if Gandalf can call down meator storm ….
Harry Potter also has rules, magic requires incantation, movements, pronunciation,….
Rules are required. Arthur light beam has a limit it could not travel indefinitely. Janus requires line of sight to see the future. And Wukong not transform into black hole or nuclear pasta because the density and gravity of the material itself will crush him dead instantaneously.
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The only thing that matters is sustaining suspension of disbelief. In the end anything goes, so long as it remains coherent to the setting. Rules can be extremely rigid or extremely lax, but keeping up the spirit of the rules is important.
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Just read through the Janus route, a few things are bothering me:
First, why wouldn’t they be constantly checking the next few moments of the immediate area constantly? I would assume that their powers would be honed enough to be able to basically be able to passively know the near future of themselves and the immediate area (the text suggests this is feasible:)
you had your first vision of your own future
…
You could now see the possible futures of objects and abstract things such as the roman empire
Perhaps I am wrong about how the hallucinations work, but my impression is that they should not be an issue because occur when overexerting, and a millennia old being should be able to pull this off as easily as breathing. I would also assume that surprising Janus would be extremely difficult to do, but instead the MC gets surprised by a lot of things, like Choi and the praetor ambush.
On a similar note, while fighting Choi I was surprised Janus did not see that she would escape. Again I find this uncharacteristic
Speaking of Choi, if Janus refuses her deal (which sounds more like a favor instead, because she doesn’t mention what she’ll give in return), they let her go despite being willing to kill her in public a few minutes ago. I find it to be quite uncharacteristic of a tactician whom is uncaring of mortal machinations; if she is significant to the plot I would suggest a different way for the meeting to occur, perhaps by a phone call, or reorder the scene to after the MC’s incognito is compromised, in which case there’s less reason to kill for silence; otherwise I would expect Janus to immediately kill her.
Regarding the presence of the praetors, since Janus can see more abstractly into the future I would have expected them to see possible outcomes of their excursion to the city, possibly a small description along the lines of ‘in one thread you see an open conflict against the praetors, in another you manage to evade them’. Something like that would really help the feel of being precognitive, and there are various plausible reasons why there are more than one possible futures (such simply peeking to avoid overexerting, having actors whom Janus cannot control affect the outcome, etc.). As the conflict looms closer then there could be a few hints of its crystallizing certainty but by then it is too late to change path.
I also assume that Janus is aware of Timur’s prison break, but doesn’t want to be there? And also wouldn’t they know the rebinding attempt would likely fail as well? I was hoping for an explanation around this.
All in all, sometimes it feels like Janus is appropriately all-seeing and powerful, other times they are wildly incompetent for a 2300 year old tactician. Janus should be almost impossible to outplay, as they can literally play 4D chess while everyone else is stuck with 3D. A comparison that comes to mind is how in VtM an elder should not be out manoeuvred by a neonate, except in exceptional circumstances.
To end on a more positive note, the precognition is done well when it is present, and makes the fights quite satisfying to read, but when it is not I feel a jarring sense of inconsistency. The time stoppage is also cool, Mr. Cloud had no idea what hit him. Looking forward to what happens next!
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Yea that, and consistency of said rules that the universe has.
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I mean tbh, Bringing up the exacting sciences of how stuff works does take the fun out of superhero/Fantastical/Mythological stories.
Yes you can dictate the exacting sciences of how something is but in the grander and practical style of the story… It really shouldn’t matter.
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Well, can you explain why Ishtar can specifically fly exactly at Mach 4? Why not less or more? Is there science? Or is it the rule of this universe?
just a phrase of words man, Mach 4 is kinda fast and all that and its better then simply stating the fella is flying fast af Boi.
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I think I still pick Ishtar as my favorite, she fight with fist which totally badass.
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Zeus seems like a great person to get drunk with
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Yeah I had the same thoughts. I really hope DrDense didn’t bite off more than they can chew with Janus’s powers. Main characters with powerful precognition and/or time abilities are notoriously hard to write.
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Janus changes too much of the plot if his power work as intended. I imagine it would be really hard to write.
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Can you imagine how tedious this would be? Sure, Janus would be physically safer, but if I lived every moment twice in a row for my infinite life I’d go insane.
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Being precogniscient without an off switch would be a guaranteed descent into madness. You wouldn’t just see the future, you would see everything single branch of the future for every single minute alteration of the timeline.
Your brain would only be able to withstand a fraction of that, and even what it’s capable of processing would be such a massive amount of information that it would be impossible to parse, only the closest events would be clearly discernible among the noise of possibilities.
And even then, are you sure you’re looking forward? Is this happening, going to happen, has this happened already? And you doubt more and more and everything blurs together until you realize your conception of time never even approached the glimpse of truth you were given. Was time ever linear?
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